Warning: if you haven’t finished the novel, this post will involve many spoilers
As we’ve talked about in class, Mansfield Park is considered to be a novel about improvement. At the beginning of the novel, it seems like the story will focus on Fanny’s improved circumstances through Sir Thomas’ and Lady Bertram’s patronage. While this does seem to be the case in the first volume, where we learn about Fanny’s improved education and social upbringing, I would argue that the real improvement in the story is not Fanny’s, but Sir Thomas’.
The double-scandal of Maria’s running off with Henry Crawford, even though she’s married, and Julia eloping with Mr. Yates is the catalyst for the breakdown of the entire world of the novel. I would argue that this occurs because Austen is trying to force us to question the tendency to rely only on our initial impressions of people. In this novel, if we relied on our first impressions, the reader would have been as led astray as some of the characters. This critique seems to be embodied best in Sir Thomas at the end of the novel when he transforms his ideas about everyone who was close to him, including his own folly in letting Mrs. Norris have so much influence within his household, especially with Maria. There is a very long section on p. 458-59 where we learn from the narrator about Sir Thomas’ own regrets regarding his daughters. It begins by telling us that “Too late he became aware how unfavourable to the character of any young people must be totally opposite treatment which Maria and Julia had been always experiencing at home, where the excessive indulgence and flatter of their aunt [Mrs. Norris] had been continually contrasted with his own severity” (458). Initially, he blames his own conduct, as trying to act in contrast to Mrs. Norris’ tendency to spoil the girls, especially Maria. His attempt to balance this excess does not work. He then moves to thinking that what occurred and how his daughters acted must be more than that; “something must have been wanting within” (459). This connects to Fanny’s earlier conversation with Henry Crawford where she says that “we have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be” (413) and in Edmund’s critique of Miss Crawford when he breaks off his attachment. He says that he said “from my heart I wished her well, and earnestly hoped that she might soon learn to think more justly, and not owe the valuable knowledge we could any of us acquire – the knowledge of ourselves and of our duty, to the lessons of affliction – and immediately left the room” (455). Both Edmund and Fanny are relating how important it is for people to know themselves and their duties, and, as Fanny says, if we know ourselves, we are the best guides for proper conduct.
Sir Thomas’ comment about his daughter’s faultiness within is in direct opposition to the knowing of oneself. If they had, he tells us, they would have not acted as they did. The narrator finishes the lament by saying “bitterly did he deplore a deficiency, which now he could scarcely comprehend to have been possible. Wretchedly did he feel, that with all the cost and care of an anxious and expensive education, he had brought up his daughters without their understanding their first duties, or his being acquainted with their character and temper” (459). Here, we see his improvement of character because he is taking the partial blame for the lack of character and duty in his daughters, which led to their deceptive natures.
Similarly, we learn that Sir Thomas has become as annoyed with Mrs. Norris as the reader. We learn that “he had considerably over-rated her sense…he had felt her as an hourly evil…she seemed a part of himself that must be borne for ever” (461). After being annoyed with Mrs. Norris’ actions after his return from Antigua, the fact that she played such a vital role in the spoiling of his daughters was enough for him to be pleased that she left Mansfield Park.
Finally, he re-evalutes his feelings toward Fanny and toward more “properly matched” relationships. As we learn, “sick of ambitious and mercenary connections, prizing more and more the sterling good of principle and temper, and chiefly anxious to bind by the strongest securities all that remained to him of domestic felicity” (466), he encourages the match between Edmund and Fanny because “Fanny was indeed the daughter that he wanted” (467). He becomes less concerned with the monetary advantages of the proper match and more concerned with those qualities that Fanny has instilled, naturally, within her.
However, despite Sir Thomas’ obvious improvement in his opinions and character-analysis of others, it is sad that it takes his daughter running off with another man while still married and his other daughter eloping, two events that would have destroyed the family’s reputation, for him to see others for more than what they appear at first glance.
As we’ve talked about in class, Mansfield Park is considered to be a novel about improvement. At the beginning of the novel, it seems like the story will focus on Fanny’s improved circumstances through Sir Thomas’ and Lady Bertram’s patronage. While this does seem to be the case in the first volume, where we learn about Fanny’s improved education and social upbringing, I would argue that the real improvement in the story is not Fanny’s, but Sir Thomas’.
The double-scandal of Maria’s running off with Henry Crawford, even though she’s married, and Julia eloping with Mr. Yates is the catalyst for the breakdown of the entire world of the novel. I would argue that this occurs because Austen is trying to force us to question the tendency to rely only on our initial impressions of people. In this novel, if we relied on our first impressions, the reader would have been as led astray as some of the characters. This critique seems to be embodied best in Sir Thomas at the end of the novel when he transforms his ideas about everyone who was close to him, including his own folly in letting Mrs. Norris have so much influence within his household, especially with Maria. There is a very long section on p. 458-59 where we learn from the narrator about Sir Thomas’ own regrets regarding his daughters. It begins by telling us that “Too late he became aware how unfavourable to the character of any young people must be totally opposite treatment which Maria and Julia had been always experiencing at home, where the excessive indulgence and flatter of their aunt [Mrs. Norris] had been continually contrasted with his own severity” (458). Initially, he blames his own conduct, as trying to act in contrast to Mrs. Norris’ tendency to spoil the girls, especially Maria. His attempt to balance this excess does not work. He then moves to thinking that what occurred and how his daughters acted must be more than that; “something must have been wanting within” (459). This connects to Fanny’s earlier conversation with Henry Crawford where she says that “we have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be” (413) and in Edmund’s critique of Miss Crawford when he breaks off his attachment. He says that he said “from my heart I wished her well, and earnestly hoped that she might soon learn to think more justly, and not owe the valuable knowledge we could any of us acquire – the knowledge of ourselves and of our duty, to the lessons of affliction – and immediately left the room” (455). Both Edmund and Fanny are relating how important it is for people to know themselves and their duties, and, as Fanny says, if we know ourselves, we are the best guides for proper conduct.
Sir Thomas’ comment about his daughter’s faultiness within is in direct opposition to the knowing of oneself. If they had, he tells us, they would have not acted as they did. The narrator finishes the lament by saying “bitterly did he deplore a deficiency, which now he could scarcely comprehend to have been possible. Wretchedly did he feel, that with all the cost and care of an anxious and expensive education, he had brought up his daughters without their understanding their first duties, or his being acquainted with their character and temper” (459). Here, we see his improvement of character because he is taking the partial blame for the lack of character and duty in his daughters, which led to their deceptive natures.
Similarly, we learn that Sir Thomas has become as annoyed with Mrs. Norris as the reader. We learn that “he had considerably over-rated her sense…he had felt her as an hourly evil…she seemed a part of himself that must be borne for ever” (461). After being annoyed with Mrs. Norris’ actions after his return from Antigua, the fact that she played such a vital role in the spoiling of his daughters was enough for him to be pleased that she left Mansfield Park.
Finally, he re-evalutes his feelings toward Fanny and toward more “properly matched” relationships. As we learn, “sick of ambitious and mercenary connections, prizing more and more the sterling good of principle and temper, and chiefly anxious to bind by the strongest securities all that remained to him of domestic felicity” (466), he encourages the match between Edmund and Fanny because “Fanny was indeed the daughter that he wanted” (467). He becomes less concerned with the monetary advantages of the proper match and more concerned with those qualities that Fanny has instilled, naturally, within her.
However, despite Sir Thomas’ obvious improvement in his opinions and character-analysis of others, it is sad that it takes his daughter running off with another man while still married and his other daughter eloping, two events that would have destroyed the family’s reputation, for him to see others for more than what they appear at first glance.